A mountain
village as from the picture book. The local centre developed in
concentric circles around the – in the 11. Century bricked
- Castello of the counts della Gherardesca, before Castagneto Marittimo
itself expanded in the 18. Century towards the west. Only since
1907 the place is called Castagneto Carducci after Giosuè
Carducci (1836 - 1907), the Nobel prize winner and “poet of
the new Italy”, who spent here and in Bolgheri his youth.
From the small park of the Piazzale Belvedere 200 m above the sea
one has a marvelous view over the hill country and the coast.

Sassetta
& Suvereto

At the slopes
of the Colline Metallifere in the direction of the sea finds you
will find the romantic mountain villages Sassetta and Suvereto,
which are about 14 km apart. In the midst of chestnut forests appears
Sassetta (340 m above the sea) at a rock slope. This pictorial village
is such as nice as a “strain” place, as all lanes lead
downhill and consequently also again uphill.
Suvereto was created around the year 1000. By the Porta alla Silici,
the well received pisan city wall from the 14. Century, one arrives
the upper city towered above by the ruin of the old castle with
the pretty Piazza Gramsci.

Campiglia
Marittima

The
prospect platform in front of the Porta A Mare offers the perhaps
most spectacular panorama of the entire coast. Down the plain of
Venturina, in front of it the battlements of the Castelli on hills
covered with olive trees. On the left the sea with the bay of Follonica,
straightforward the peninsula of Piombino with view to the island
Elba and on the right again the sea with the gulf of Baratti.

Bolgheri

A long and
straight avenue of cypresses, the probably most beautiful and the
longest in Tuscany, leads from the via Arelia up to Bolgheri. The
village is put on like a fortress, half village, half feudal seat
of the counts Gherardesca from the 16. to 18. Century. Bolgheri
is -due to its since 200 years nearly unchanged built volumes -
a genuine rare piece. A rare piece and world well-known is also
the Cabernet wine Sassicaia originating from Bolgheri, the best
red wine of Italy.